Lofter

LOFTER,a recent band to have come out in the past couple of years. lofter comprises of arman, becky who used to be in sad bitch, cj who at one point was in joyce manor (dont ask him about it) and elan who i think was in sally field. anyways this band is nothing short of a demon spawn created by the genes of drive like jehu, nomeansno, early 200's screamo, et cetera et cetera. if you have had the pleasure of knowing arman you know this is the type of band he would be in. album's good by the way, worth checking out. their release featured here was put out by hairgrowth records on tape so cop it from there or download here

UNiTY

this is it - probably Oakland's most ubiquitous band to have ever come out in recent years. definitely the best around. Unity started out as a two piece between local artist Gabriel Ramierez and other (also ubiquitous) artist and guitarist/part singer of Meat Market Jeff Cheung. The band came into formation i think around 2012ish and stayed a two piece for while cranking out singles every now and then but was soon added by Alex Shen and Ian Tatum of meat market fame and Ayana from sally field, all forming a tight nit five piece. i dont know what to call Unity other than a really good ass rock guitar pop band, the music speaks for itself. the band has put out releases on bandcamp and self dubbed tapes every now and then but this is their main release, their self titled LP put out by ronnie from digital regress who was in a band called bicycle day. just know if that you leave this blog knowing anything about the bay is that Unity = Oakland.

10 tracks. you can download this via media fire our through digital regress's bandcamp here

FiSH BREATH :': Songs from the chaparral

ok so i think from now on i won't be quite consistent with new releases, there's a lot to cherish in recent years that can't be avoided. every now i'll sprinkle some blasts from the past saved from my drafts.

back to business. this is probably one of my favorite releases ever to come out of the bay from one of my favorite bands - fish breath's first album 'songs from the chaparral. this was released back in 2013 but i think had a year's worth of recordings prior to that. fish breath basically started as a solo project from George Carpenter, a now SFSU alum from san clemente who was in a band called red asphalt. that's probably getting a little to personal but basically this entire album was recorded by himself which i think is pretty neat. george was soon joined by oliver o'haver on guitar who is in other sf bands like dennis and toyota and michael cruz as bassist. fish breath has gone through a rotation of drummers but as a unit the band has always featured those three. some would point that fish breath has a touch of some stuff like unwound, swirlies or duster but this album has a mark of it's own. the songwriting is definitely creative in it's own right to be not to be considered as another 'revival' band like many others in the bay but its easy to see where some influences are drawn. that's just me though, i dont know. if anything i like to describe this album as 'mystical' and 'elusive' even though it just seems like another rock album. it's nothing but roughness around the edges. the volume dynamics is all fucked up and vocals are distinguishable but that's what makes it so good. see for yourself.

8 tracks, you can download the album via mediafire here or check out fish breath's bandcamp